Kursk Review

The audience is housed inside a facsimile of a British submarine. Five actors wander between them, carrying out duties, pondering on their life back home and rough-housing their way through the danger and boredom. For a play based on a notorious accident, that could have set the world on nuclear red alert, this is an oddly domestic drama, that relies on a sub-plot for added emotional punch and technical detail over melodrama.

The actual death of the submariners of Kursk is unmoving, as it happens off stage: the British submariners are merely witnesses, making the audience witnesses of witnesses, rather than confronted by the tragedy. A moment of darkness with Russian voices in panic and a roll-call of names is all that the play risks: the script's drama remains with the British crew.

The script is not strong: slapping in bits of poetry and technical detail does not make the play poetic or scientific, and the drama of a single family death for one submariner is sentimental. That a play based around an entire submarine full of men sinking needs a child's death to convey tragedy betrays a lack of confidence.

Fortunately, the cast are convincing, even if the captain's role is clichéd and lacks the necessary authority. The staging is impressive and the concept sound. The lack of ambition, the failure to really press the audience, however, makes this a wasted opportunity and far too polite entertainment.

Read Michael Cox's review of Kursk